Angel Beats! - Reviews

There’s only one thing you need to know when watching this, and it’s that TK is the best dudebro on the show. Catch him with his sick headspins, his crazy dance moves, and his surprisingly-fluent English – but that’s only if you ask him to speak in catchphrases and short bursts of foreign goodness, and not in computer manual-type sentences. It’s with this I do solemnly declare that I will try to wrangle out a review from the dark recesses of my mind, written entirely (okay, so maybe not entirely) in TK-speak. That’s how much I love this guy. Come on, let’s dance! Dancing in the shadow!

Get chance and luck! Listen, I imagine this show would have been a very gratifying and ground-breaking experience if I’d watched it sooner, back when I was still young, impressionable, and laden with all the world’s troubles. It’s sincere in what it wants to do and what it wants to say, but now that I’m older and a little more world-weary, there’s only so much repeated yelling of, “YOU MATTER! YOU MUST CONTINUE LIVING! YOU ARE SPECIAL!” can do. But it is funny, the characters all click so well together, and it’s easy to get invested in some of them until the rushed ending barges in and dashes all your dreams to the ground. But that’s all part of what makes Angel Beats special, baby. It’s heartfelt and funny, but it ends so abruptly too, in the way only shows airing in the early part of this decade can pull off. Just wild heaven, you know?

If your story is set in a universe where everyone gets re-spawned immediately after they die, then you really only have two ways to go if you want it to be funny: either you go full-on slapstick or you go all-out with the gallows humor. Lucky for us, Angel Beats has both of those in spades – even if it tends to run with the same joke three times more after it’s been said. Don’t stop dancing! It also helps that this cast of characters is your classic lightning in a bottle group; if their chemistry wasn’t as good as this, then half the jokes would have fallen flat. My only problem with them is that watching them goof off felt a lot like watching role players in a game of pick-up. You had your main characters for sure, but the whole group was more a cast of bench players getting hyped on the court, instead of three random guys backing up two star players. And that works for and against the show, in more ways than one. You feeling me? Don’t let me cry!

All in all, Angel Beats is not a bad thing to show anyone who’s just starting to get their feet wet in the anime pool. It’s got good characters, it’s a landmark series, and it’s able to balance its heartfelt moments and hilarity fairly well. There are better shows to get involved with if all you want is an affirmation of your humanity, but Angel Beats isn’t a bad start. It’s – what else can you say – knockin’ on heaven’s door, maybe, or more a zetsubou no carnival. Something like taaasty candy, baby! – tastes so good on your tongue at first, but let the taste linger a little longer and you might start to get sick of it sooner rather than later.

[This review was made for the Anime-Planet Secret Santa 2019 event. Listen, if it helps, maybe you can just think of this as Battle Royale’s younger sibling – more family-friendly, even more angsty than it needs to be, and a whole lot cheesier about its worldview.]

I was impressed by this show, something that isn't very hard to do granted, but still that's something. Oh and there's going to be some minor spoilers so if you don't want to be spoiled skip to the end.

Story

It's set in a high school in a world after death, inhabited mostly by 'NPC' students and teachers among them those that have passed on, as well as the world’s guardian Tenshi.

The story focuses on a group of high school students in a group called the Shinda Sekai Sensen or SSS for short, a group that is in a fight against God. They comprise of people who have not fulfilled what they wanted to in life, many of them angry at God for the things that happened in their lives, the leader of the SSS Yuri especially.

The plot follows this group as they basically cause trouble for the Tenshi, for example using their musical band Girls Dead Monster to distract the NPCs whilst they steal their food stamps or just to get them out the way whilst they perform dubious operations among other things. They are in this high school and if they perform activities like a normal student they will disappear, so they basically continue to defy the rules in order to remain present and continue fighting.

This is what they do at first, but (Spoilers for the rest of the paragraph) Tenshi is revealed to not be an enemy after all and instead the enemy is... no one in particular, except for some guy at the end who was messing with them using shadows or whatever. The show like it consisted of several mini arcs: Tenshi as the villain arc then Vice president as the villain arc, Tenshi clone arc, Shadow monster arc and then end.

The structure of the story is very messy and unclear. Certain elements don’t fit too well and the revelation Yuri sees at the end is quite weak. For a show with only 13 episodes and one that is clearly supposed to be plot driven it feels like each arc never gets a chance to really shine, like it could have used a longer series to fully flesh these out.

I loved the comedy though and I really enjoyed the character interactions, especially between Otonashi and Tenshi, and I liked the happily ever after ending which leaves a few things to the viewer's imagination.

Animation

It looked great. Not many complaints from me in this department. Not much else for me to say.

Sound

Sound was great too. Quality of the voice acting and the sound effects was of a high standard.

I was a big fan of the opening and endings songs used and liked the music used throughout, including the songs by the Girls Dead Monster band.

Characters

They were what made the show for me and made up for the story's shortcomings. Most of the things I liked about the show had to do with the character interactions.

The main character was likable and found his backstory interesting. His interactions with Tenshi were some of the highlights of the show, Kana Hanazawa does a stellar job as Tenshi's VA by the way among other great performances. (MAJOR SPOILER) He came to realise that she was not this enemy they had to fight and grew closer to her throughout the show and ended up falling in love with her.

Also special mention to TK, he was brilliant har har.

Conclusion

A great anime with some excellent characters, great music and superb animation let down a little by its story having some drawbacks.

I would certainly recommend this anime, especially if you have seen some other works originally by Key, like Charlotte for example.

A SpanglishJC ‘review’

Secret Santa 2015 review

I think this is my all time favorite anime I've watched. It's so good and I cried at the end. It may be an overstatement to others that this is my favorite but I mean it. I recommend this anime for anyone looking for something a bit more serious and sad. It's emotional and well written. A lot of growth in the characters as well. 

This was one of the first anime that i ever watched and i still remember how i cried like a baby. This anime makes you acknowledge about your life that includes unfairness, happiness e.t.c. LIFE IS WORTH TO LIVE! I really loved the characters development and the unique plot. OH MY GOD!   

I can't remember why or when I wanted to watch Angel Beats! but I do remember enjoying it quite a bit. If I wanted to watch it, it would probably have been for the animation, as this is a treat for the eyes; it has to be one if not the best anime I've ever seen visual-wise. Everything looks so... polished and different from the usual stuff, like a tiger among cats; sure the cats look good, but that tiger is in a class of it's own who will tear those other cats apart. So, so gorgeous.

The sound is great all-around but I must mention the beautiful OP. I love how the piano doesn't stop, how it can still be heard even when everything else is playing and how the OP doesn't switch to rock or anything heavy that would disturb the piano or the mood it sets. The other instruments and vocal enhance the majesty of it and make it into something wonderful. And the other version is pretty good, not as good as the piano one though. The VO work, especially TK but otherwise, don't have much to say about it. But damn, love it when Angel activates one of her moves through voice command.

The worst thing I can say about this is that I wish there were more backstories to the characters, as only about half have them explained. And it wouldn't do to say who did or didn't get a backstory but I must mention TK; the english speaking (Kinda), bandana wearing dancer. We know nothing about him apart from that he's cool and that nobody knows anything about him (Contradiction? Probably...). It is a shame... but the characters overall were pretty great, each having their quirks, their traits, what makes them different from each other; how they're themselves and no other. Just wanted more to their backstories, more development.

The story was good, pretty good but not excellent. You got the synopsis and the fact that they're essentially immortal; dying is simply a timeout that lasts a short time (You'll learn this early on). But death in this world (To vanish), like death in our world is something completely different than a timeout. It's hard to explain it without giving away too much, but it leads to one of the best aspects of the show, so I'm not going to try. At some parts, I just wanted more. It should have gone on longer than 13 episodes, as the last few episodes seemed... cut up, or not entirely together. Kinda broken up and missing a few components. Coupled with the already mentioned character development stuff, it brings it down. What's there is pretty good, but it's not enough.

A quick note before I wrap this up: what can top the comedy and maybe even TK's coolness is the sad moments, or tragic moments. Some real tearjerkers here.

If it was longer and with more backstories given, especially TK's (I'm repeating this a lot but the backstories are one of the best parts of the anime) then it would be on the top of my list. But what's done is still quite good, and I'll definitely remember it for quite a while.